Rating: 
Summary: What happened to Christopher Buckley?
Review: I am a big fan of Christopher Buckley -- an avid reader of his short pieces in The New Yorker and Forbes FYI and I loved his Thank You For Smoking (which remains one of the funniest books out there and which everyone should read) -- but all I can say about this book is BLECH!!! STAY AWAY. Buckley takes a great premise with tons of comic potential and beats it to death again and again. I don't know why he feels compelled to write novels when he is such a master of the short comic piece but he just can't sustain the effort required for a book. This book begins on an incredibly vulgar note (which amazon wisely chose NOT to excerpt -- good for them) and just goes downhill from there. Buckley seems to be desperately flailing around for a subject and just hurling potshots at everyone in sight -- and the actual resolution is obvious to anyone who read the first chapter (and believe me, that ice water image will be scarred into you for life if you do). It's clear this book is an attempt to further embarrass the Clintons -- which would be FINE if the book were, in the end, any good at all. It's not. It's reaaaaaaally not. Instead it's just a bad vulgar novel trying to piggyback on the Monica scandals and thinking it is much smarter and wittier than it is. Better luck next time -- and alas, there will probably be a next time.
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Summary: Any first lady deserves better
Review: Technically well written. Tightly crafted sentences, good vocabulary, good grammer. I'm sorry I can't think of any more kind words. I was vastly disappointed. The characters, while easily identifiable, were card board cutouts without a whiff of the complexity of the characters they were based upon. The writing style is cynical, vulgar, crass. I love well written, compassionate, mysteries of life in Washington, the nuances of political life, and legal thrillers. I couldn't get beyond chapter two of this unfortunate parody. Which is too bad, as the basic premise is exceedingly good. In the right hands it would make a hilarious, charming, fascinating mystery.
Rating: 
Summary: Fun stuff
Review: See book description above.While poking fun at everything from Dan Rather to the Presidency, Buckley's satirical novel is also a good legal thriller. When I pick up a Buckley novel, I know I'm in for a treat, and this was quite the treat. I think this is his best so far. Highly recommended
Rating:
Summary: Like Wandering Through a Spinning Propeller
Review: Christopher Buckley has written fiction, non-fiction, plays, poetry, and dozens of articles for prominent publications. I have enjoyed his work, but this, "No Way To Treat A First Lady", is absolutely the best piece of writing he has done. In satirical pieces he has written in the past there was often spirited debate about just who was being put through the meat grinder, not so this time. Often real names are used with only the last named thinly disguised, and as a rule if a person is mentioned they are generally next in line for being flayed. There are times a writer is said to have a metaphorical rapier like wit; Buckley uses a rapier but his drips blood. There are times when he simply has a bit of fun when giving the First Lady the moniker of Lady Bethmac. However most of the time he is out to score and for that I applaud him. He describes one attorney who you will immediately recognize as having been part of a certain dream team for a Heisman trophy winner. He describes the attorney as not being satisfied with acquitting a multiple murderer, but needing to stand in front of the press while blood still drips from his client's shoes. Buckley was clearly incensed by the events in Brentwood and the farce that followed in both the criminal and civil courts. Where else but in America can you be found not guilty and walk free, and then be found responsible for the same crime. The latter is still not really an issue for one need only relocate to a friendly state like Florida, which in addition to being a state that is unable to successfully conduct an election for dogcatcher also welcomes certain dregs of society and happily protects their assets. Great satire is hilarious, exceptional satire is also about and contains a great deal of serious thought on the people and subjects it touches and then shreds. This is a very amusing book to read, but when also acknowledged for the social commentary it contains, the book is elevated well above a humorous read. Buckley the elder is an established man who has earned a place in the pantheon of great writers, thinkers, and modern persons that have earned the respect to be as skilled in a variety of disciplines as to have renaissance used to describe their talents. Christopher, or Buckley the younger, did not fall far from the paternal tree. He did land in soil more acidic and perhaps more accessible to readers than his father. In any event we are fortunate to have another Buckley that will continue to offer a unique view on life.
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Summary: Satire at its best
Review: Leave it to Christopher Buckley, with his loquacious sarcastic prose, to come up with a novel that is funny and filled with depravity. With the nefarious president and his saintly wife- not to mention the dumb blondes and the insidious lawyers, his latest is a delight to consume. I will reccomend it for my book club.
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Summary: Very, very funny!
Review: Christopher Buckley is best known as a Washington satirist, but you don't have to live anywhere near the DC Beltway to love this book. In fact, you don't even have to be very interested in politics. He's written the best possible send up of the celebrity trial and celebrity culture -- the courtroom scenes will have you laughing out loud. He's a deft and brilliant observer of the foibles and follies of human nature and he's just so damn funny to boot. We are very lucky to have Christopher Buckley!
Rating: 
Summary: Mildly Entertaining
Review: You read this book, and you keep waiting for it to get better. Not that it is bad, it is just not what his other books are - captivating. There are good parts to this book and some funny awkward moments, but it is almost like the book is trying to hard to be something that it is not - sharp satire. I know Buckley tries to be over the top but this time he was just, well.... over.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Airplane Reading (but keep expectations low)
Review: I bought this book based on the enthusiastic reviews on Amazon as well as the intriguing and tremendous satiric potential offered by its premise. I was disappointed. While often entertaining and readable, this was by no means a spectacular, well-plotted, or thought provoking book. The characters are one dimensional (when they do attempt to evolve into two dimensions the resulting actions are completely implausible). A lot of it is predictable (former lovers.. hm - what will happen next?). Buckley also uses the words "objection" and "sustained" or "overruled" so many times I simply lost interest. There are countless courtroom scenes, but the real plot is pretty much contained in the last 20 pages. There is a difference between satire and simple cynicism - Buckley is definitely more the smart aleck kid criticizing and picking at the obvious targets (from starlets to various governmental agenices). The only enjoyable passages involved the self-absorbed Babette van Anka, another stereotype but so caught up in her own odd universe that she is the only character worth remembering from this book.
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Summary: Good, Entertaining Read
Review: "No Way to Treat a First Lady" is an amusing read for the few hours it will take you to finish it. This isn't literary fiction; you won't receive any interesting revelations about life and love.
The heroine, Elizabeth Tyler MacMann, is accused of killing her husband, Kenneth Kemble MacMann, war hero and President of the United States. Boyce "Shameless" Baylor is her lawyer and jilted fiancé-she left him twenty-five years ago for the man who would become president. There are plenty of characters, including the actress/mistress/singer/Middle East peace advocate, a renegade spy, and underworld gangsters.
Buckley pokes fun of the media, the government, the legal system, and the entertainment industry. With a few clever witticisms and improbable twists, the novel makes its way through the "Trial of the Millennium" until the all the plot threads tie up neatly in the end.
I'd recommend "No Way to Treat a First Lady" for a few hours entertainment and not much else.
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Summary: Laughed so hard I cried
Review: It's a cliché, but true! I immensely enjoyed "No Way to Treat a First Lady", and found myself chuckling almost constantly throughout, laughing out loud many times, and laughing uncontrollably on several occasions. If you read this book in public, as I did, be prepared to receive disapproving glances from others who aren't having as good a time as you are. No Way skewers the Washington political scene, the legal profession, the media, and in particular the Clinton scandals and the O.J. Simpson trial. But ultimately, like all great satire, it is really a no-holds-barred look at our current societal mores and norms. The main characters in No Way are all composites, which is how Christopher Buckley is able to construct a storyline that departs from the actual events it is satirizing, but is still fully recognizable by anyone who followed the news in the late 1990s. You'll enjoy picking out references to Bill and Hillary Clinton, Barbra Streisand, Marc Rich, Alan Dershowitz, and of course Monica - plus many others. Even Nick Naylor, the hero of Buckley's "Thank You for Smoking", has a bit part in No Way. I've read most of Buckley's books, and No Way is right up there with his best. I'd put "Thank You for Smoking" first by a hair, followed by No Way, then "God is My Broker". Thank You is slightly more timeless, as No Way's humor will dissipate somewhat with time, as people's recollections of the Clinton years fade. Christopher Buckley can legitimately lay claim to being America's top working satirist. Keep them coming, Mr. Buckley, sir!
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